


Lord Trevelyan Finally Learns to Dance

by Voidmancer



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 02:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3191918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voidmancer/pseuds/Voidmancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You do know, Inquisitor," Leliana chimed in during a formal dinner at the great hall with him and his advisors to discuss several issues of note. "That you would be expected to dance in the Winter Palace ball?"</p><p>Trevelyan choked on his ale as the words were spoken, covering his mouth and nose just in time to avoid any further embarrassing display.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lord Trevelyan Finally Learns to Dance

"You do know, Inquisitor," Leliana chimed in during a formal dinner at the great hall with him and his advisors to discuss several issues of note. "That you would be expected to dance in the Winter Palace ball?"

Trevelyan choked on his ale as the words were spoken, covering his mouth and nose just in time to avoid any further embarrassing display. He coughed a few several times before Cullen took pity on him and handed him a table napkin when groping blindly for one proved unsuccessful. He wiped his nose, mouth and hands when he managed to stop and tried to regain his dignity by neatly folding the soiled napkin and putting it on an empty spot beside him.

Thank goodness there were no visiting dignitaries at present.

He cleared his throat, once, twice. "Good luck getting me to learn," he said. "My parents had sent for tutors from Orlais who couldn't get me to do the simplest dance, and that was when I was ready to learn. After that I just snuck out while my siblings enjoyed the brunt of the lessons." 

Josephine chuckled. "I thought you'd be an accomplished dancer, what with how you weave through the battlefield."

Trevelyan rolled his eyes. "It's one of Thedas' biggest mysteries I'm sure," he said dryly. Incredulous that the idea of the dance floor and a battlefield would be similar. The footwork was completely different and only one involved actual killing.

"How did you survive all those years in Ostwick then? Surely you must have attended the noble gatherings," Josephine asked, making light conversation. Her smile grew wider and a little more mischievous as she said, "I bet all the young ladies were begging for a dance."

Trevelyan gave a small wry smile. "Oh perhaps if I were the firstborn and behaved well enough for the standards of my family I might have been. I always slip away into the card room and gamble before I would be asked to dance. Or feigned a headache. Or disappeared, as I'm good at disappearing. They all work."

"Well, it's never too late to learn," Leliana said brightly. "We can't have our Inquisitor attending a ball and not dancing. Josie and I could teach you a few dances."

"I'd ruin your toes in one afternoon," Trevelyan said, remembering how he had ruined his sister's dancing shoes in a mere three attempts to dance. He was lighter on his feet now, but that didn't mean he couldn't inflict any further injury.

"Come now, Inquisitor," Leliana chuckled. "Surely you're lighter on your feet than that."

"Please wear steel-tipped boots if and when we do try," Trevelyan said as he lifted his mug for a long sip of ale.

-

The secondary main hall apparently, was the best place to restart Lord Stephan Trevelyan's failed dancing lessons. Varric undoubtedly already had a tally of bets on how this afternoon was going to end. 'Badly' would be the best one to take and he'd have made himself a few crowns if he could actually bet against himself.

Leliana and Josephine had both worn dancing slippers, confound these women. "Couldn't get steel-tipped boots?" 

"Oh, don't fret," Leliana said, unusually cheery. "Here, Josie will teach you the classic Orlesian ball dances and I'll teach you the more complicated moves later."

Trevelyan sighed and took Josephine's offered hand. "Here," Josephine said as Leliana began to strum a tune with her lyre. "First you move to the side, forward, side again and—!"

"Sorry, sorry," Trevelyan said as he stepped on Josephine's toe. Josephine winced in pain but said nothing. "I should do this barefoot," he said, going to the side so he could pull of his boots. Honestly, dancing, why did it have to be so complicated?

"It's alright," Josephine said after awhile, shaking the foot with her injured toe. She did not protest the Inquisitor walking about his castle barefoot though. "We'll go again. We were doing well."

"As you say," Trevelyan said with a sigh, taking position yet again as Leliana continued to play.

-

Several days of endless lessons, three pairs of broken dancing slippers each belonging to him, Leliana and Josephine, and a handful of crowns being lost and won as Varric collected bets, Lord Trevelyan had yet to learn how to properly do the simplest of dances. It really wouldn't matter if he didn't learn how to dance, but at this point it was not about actually learning, but proving that he can learn a few Maker-damned steps and look good doing it.

But Andraste's burning tits these dances were difficult. 

Unwilling to admit defeat, Trevelyan extended lessons on his own one night, an imaginary partner in hand and he was sure he was just going around in circles.

"Ah, here you are," Dorian said from the stairwell, leaning against the threshold in that usual easy, casual manner of his. "When you weren't in your quarters I thought you'd be in the tavern, turns out here you are, still trying to spin around in a proper fashion instead of randomly."

"I trip on feet less if I only have my own to think about," Trevelyan admitted with a wry, lopsided smile. "Both our diplomat and spymaster are still determined to see me dazzle the Orlesian nobility with my graceful dancing."

Dorian laughed and looked at Trevelyan with a familiar twinkle in his eye that said some clever idea was in the works. "I have been watching some of your lessons. I thought it would be wiser to leave you to your dance tutors, but it seems a little intervention is necessary." He stood up straight and with a small flourish pulled out a plain silk scarf from his pocket.

"What is that for?" Trevelyan asked, unable to keep himself from smirking, remembering the last time Dorian brought one of those out. The ghost of an ache welled up in his wrists and lap at the memory. He shoved those thoughts aside hastily, unwilling to entertain such thoughts then and there in plain view of anyone. 

"Nothing you should be worried about," Dorian said, meeting Trevelyan's smirk with an suggestive one of his own. Thank the Maker only the two of them were about, or anyone in the vicinity would have caught on exactly what had been done the last time they both saw a silk scarf. While Trevelyan had little concern for the tongues that were wagging about his relationship with the Tevinter mage, he would rather not fan the flames too much.

Dorian folded the silk fabric and brought it around Trevelyan's eyes in a blindfold, reaching around the back of his head to tie the knot. "There, now you can't see."

"Well, of course I can't see with this blindfold over my eyes. I also don't see the point of this," he replied, hands moving up to take the silk fabric off, but Dorian took his hands before he could. 

"Your problem is simple," Dorian declared. "You think too much."

"I do not," Trevelyan countered, but allowed Dorian to manipulate his hands and arms to where they should be as now he was completely blind to whatever was happening around him. 

"Deny it all you like if you must," Dorian replied as they began after a count of "one, two, three," and started spinning Trevelyan into the dance he had been learning for days.

At first, the Inquisitor's movements were clumsy and erratic, but Dorian persisted, carrying on despite getting his foot stomped on a few times. Eventually, after several apologetic murmurs, Trevelyan was able to dance the first few steps smoothly and even managed to throw in a few more complicated steps. Granted, it would be difficult to have Trevelyan learn everything blindfolded, but getting him not to trip over feet was a huge improvement. 

"There now," Dorian said with a smile that even Trevelyan could hear. "Isn't that so much easier than you calculating your every next move?"

Trevelyan chuckled as they moved through the floor, nearly as fluid as if he was in battle. "Alright, so maybe you were on to something after all."

"Of course I was," Dorian said as they stopped and Trevelyan removed the silken blindfold. "We'll make a fine dancer out of you yet."

A lopsided smile found its way to Trevelyan's lips as he was face to face with Dorian once more. His chest suddenly tight and warm, Trevelyan pulled the other man closer and captured his mouth in a kiss, hands reaching up to cup his face. "I'll hold you to that," Trevelyan murmured as they broke apart, both breathless with desire.

Fingers wound themselves on the hand that still held his face. Dorian said in a low voice. "It is for certain, so long as we refrain from diverting to other... Pursuits."

"I'll try my best to behave," Trevelyan murmured, touching both their foreheads, lowering their hands as their fingers intertwined. "Although I make no promises."

"You are incorrigible," Dorian said with a chuckle, closing in for another kiss and without another word, pulled the Inquisitor into position and began leading him into a dance once more.

-

Winning the Grand Game and getting all three warring parties to reconcile for the meantime was great and all, but after everything was said and done all Inquisitor Trevelyan wanted was a long drink of something strong, a huge plate of canapes and a warm bed.

But what he got instead was Dorian, asking him for a dance. He accepted of course, thinking that for once in that evening he almost missed something. Almost.

Dancing in the terrace was a welcome repose from all the hurdles of the night and somewhat far too exhausted to care excessively what his feet were doing, he danced as gracefully as he had with Duchess Florianne earlier that evening.

"Thank you for asking me to dance," Trevelyan murmured, smiling softly. 

A grin broke across Dorian's pretty features. Dorian had been drinking excessively, but not enough that he was completely foxed, just enough to lose certain inhibitions. "You did insist on dancing with the evil magister."

"In full view of the entire Orlesian nobility," Trevelyan completed, chuckling. "Well, we're not on the dance floor, but let them watch. I think I earned more than a few dances with someone whose company I actually enjoy to now that I've cleaned up this mess."

"A few it is then?" asked Dorian, raising one smooth eyebrow. "I was going to suggest retiring to our rooms after."

"One dance," Trevelyan retracted, allowing Dorian to lead them around the terrace, for once that night lost to nothing but the moment. Perhaps there would be more later, but for now mere dancing would suffice.


End file.
